Just another Stock Hacker failure!

[TomC]

G'day guys,

My Stock Hacker motor/controller went ballistic today after ~ 50 flights. Stripped every tooth on the 60T gear. A good/lucky Auto managed to bring the heli back ok.

I'm not sure who I should be sending this motor/controller back to for inspection. Please give me a mailing address to send it to, thanks.

If and when I get this combo back, I'm not sure that I would be confident to put this motor/esc back in another Ion. It really makes me wonder why MA continues to sell these motor/esc combos.

Even If I get this motor/esc back I'd probably only use it in a lower powered heli like a logo 14 or maybe a new MA 50.

What's the best motor/esc to replace the stock one with, using 10S packs?

Cheers,

Tom C

[WillJames]

I don't think MA has sold the Ion withthe hacker motor for quite a while. I know they have sold a lot of Actro's and NEU's.

As long as you are runnign 10s the Hacker controller is fine and works great. In GOV mode, it is a little surgy for me. I have 2 of them. For the $$ thye are hard to beat. If you wanted to run 11 or 12 s you can get a Castle Creations HV-110 for around 230.00 when you can find them in stock somewhere. You read about some problems with them, but mine is from a few months ago and has worked flaslessly. I am installing it in my Actro based Ion to see if running Governor mode and gettign the headspeed back to around 1850-1900 on 10:1 will hide/minimize some of the voltage drop of running 5s1p packs for a while longer during the flight. I guess what I am saying is the NEU seems more efficient than the Actro, but I still prefer the Actro.

Gear ratios are where we lack from runnning 12s.

[TomC]

Got a reponse from Hacker, Germany to send the motor/esc directly to them for inspection (and hopefully repair). I actually bought this unit with the kit in Nov/2004 and did not build it till Dec/2005 so I believe there have been a few improvements made since then. MinAir is still selling the combos so I'm pretty sure they must be ok by now. One guy at our field has a newer version and has not had any trouble with it.

Anyway, how many guys are so lucky to have a friend like Luke Dodd who happens to have a spare Neu motor and hacker esc, and a 50T gear? I am, and he even soldered the right connections for me and brought them out to our monthly Queensland heli meeting today. In no time, I was back in business!

The new Neu seemed to work just fine. Not any more power than the Hacker (in it's prime) but it seems to be a bit more efficient, and a bit quieter. Headspeed with LG 690's were 1860 rpm (versus 1940 rpm with the Hacker, and a stock 54T gear) and I drained about 2.2 and 4.4 Ahrs from my Evo20 5S2P 7400 Lipos in 5 and 10 minute flights repectively. I also got 7 minutes total time from my 32-3700GP's on the Neu versus 6 minutes with the Hacker.

These 3 results are pretty preliminary since I used the Hacker controller in stock mode, and have not fully fine-tuned it with the prog. box. I have not even set the top and bottom endpoints on my JR radio with the esc so I may be missing out a bit of top end power (Chris from MA has said I should be getting about 1940 rpm with this set-up). I'll keep you posted as to how I make out.

Cheers,

Tom C

[WillJames]

Just wait until you program the ESC. That NEU should have a good margin of power over the Hacker. Only thing is, you may end up like me where my 77-O never allowed the NEU to perform to full potential. Once I switched to teh CC-110 the NEU came alive. Never figured out why it was so low on power withthe 77-O.

[TomC]

G'day Will,

Lower power with the 77-0 might be due to not setting up the endpoints correctly. I've just done this on the bench, but will not get a chance to try it out till later.

Also, I just noticed that Chris's 1940 rpm headspeed was 'unloaded' and to expect 100-150 lower when loaded. My 1860 rpm hs was loaded in idle-up so I guess we 'are' is the same ballpark.

I guess the next thing to try is the timing. The Stock Hacker setting is 0 deg for a 2 pole motor. Chris's recommended setting is 0 deg. I'm not sure if the Neu is a 2 pole or 4 pole motor so maybe increasing the timing might help. Maybe this is what your CC110hv settings did.

Cheers,

Tom C

[Mr.Mike]

TomC,

what's the weight of your Ion on the current setup?? (EVO 20 7400mAh and the NEU)

thanks
Mike

[TomC]

Mike,

All up weight with 10s2p 7400 evo 20's and neu is 5.4 Kg ~ 11.9 lb, so it's no lightweight! If I wasn't using a UBEC, I'd be over the 12 lb mark.

Cheers,

Tom C

[WillJames]

I'd love to try a set of the 10s2p 7400's sometime. I have flown the 5s2p 5000's and they are not nearly as hot a cells at the 3700's.

[Mr.Mike]

Thanks a lot Tom

regards
Mike

[mhale71]

hey - what are the symptoms of the motor f#@%^$%& ing up? i think mynes gone, when i spin the rotor manually by hadn ( backwarsds so it spins the motor), , if i jerk it fast sometimesi t will come to a complete stop imedialy, its liek a gear jamming stop... buti ts not my gears i dont think... ill check the 55t gear that seems to spin easier when one half of the gear is engaging the pinion then the other half... but anyways... are there any good drop in replacement motors than the hacker?... i dun wanna flame out so id rather prevent a problem then fix one..

--mike

[TomC]

Mike,

I'm not sure your symptoms are motor related or not. Like you say, check your gear mesh and alignment. Also, chech that your motor support bolts are not too long, this can sometimes catch the top of your windings and cause a similar symptom.

My main symtoms prior to the Hacker failure was an apparent increase in motor KV, and hence headspeed.

I'm pretty happy with the Neu 1521/1.5. It's an easy drop-in replacement but you'd also need to drop down to a 50-52T gear to get the equivalent headspeed that your hacker is giving with a 54-55T gear. Good luck.

Cheers,

Tom C